Richmond coach Adem Yze has labelled ruckman Samson Ryan’s needless off-the-ball free kick on Saturday evening as a “spirit crusher”, after their seven-goal loss to Port Adelaide at the MCG.

The struggling Tigers had all the momentum heading into the second half at the MCG on the back of three consecutive goals, but that came to a screeching halt courtesy of Ryan’s moment of madness which saw him gut punch Power opponent Jordon Sweet on the wing 100m off the ball.

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The action transformed a Richmond kick-in early in the third period into a Port Adelaide downfield free kick from the top of the goalsquare which Corey Durdin gleefully accepted before kicking the easy goal.

It sparked a three-goal run for the visitors which put them back in control of the contest, and they were barely challenged from that point on the way to a comfortable 42-point win.

“Especially when we’re going through what we’re going through, we’ve obviously got a few players out and got some young players out there,” a disappointed Yze said.

“You can’t defend behind undisciplined acts. So I’ll cop it if it’s an execution error and we’re just not as good as them, but when it’s something like that, they can just crush your spirit.

“It was probably a silly thing to do – well it was.”

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Ryan apologised to his teammates for the incident after the game, and he might have more apologising to do given the league’s crackdown on such actions will put him in serious danger of copping a suspension.

And with No.1 ruck Toby Nankervis already sidelined with a significant hamstring injury, a ban for Ryan would exacerbate things for the injury-hit Tigers.

“No doubt when we’re going through what we’re going through, when you’ve got fit players – if they do become unavailable, that’s frustrating,” Yze said.

Yze admitted his team should’ve been further behind in the first quarter, but were saved by Port Adelaide’s inaccuracy (1.6) and he commended Richmond’s ability to kick the last three goals of the first half after giving up the first five.

“That middle part of the game, the effort and intent was right, we just lacked that polish and the execution,” he said.

“You want to access the corridor when you can and we were making some ordinary decisions on when to go through there or when to take high risks.”

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The Tigers are now 0-4 for the first time since 2010 and are riding a nine-game losing streak. All up, they’ve lost 44 of their past 51 outings, but Yze wasn’t worried that the lack of wins was impacting his players’ spirit.

“If I felt there was an issue with that, I feel like we would’ve turned our toes up after quarter-time and it would’ve been all too hard,” Yze said.

“So I don’t sense that and the numbers show that … we win a lot of the key indicators that you want to win in a game.

“We’re going through a little bit right now, and there’s a little bit of pain, but I feel like the silver lining for these young boys is getting opportunity.

“The guys that are out – when they come back in, we’ll be really competitive against anyone.”

Richmond had 12 players on their official injury list heading into the Port Adelaide game, including Nankervis, Tom Lynch and Noah Balta.